


and I will hold on to you

by sk4di



Series: unlikely [4]
Category: Ocean's 8 (2018)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe, F/F, Fluff, Gen, I feel now that I've written everything I wanted abou this verse, Kid Fic, Post-Heist, Pre-Heist, finally some serotonin!, kind of, no angst on my watch!, really it's just adorable, this is goodbye i think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:13:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27237844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sk4di/pseuds/sk4di
Summary: Six times everything was just fine.
Relationships: Gen - Relationship, Lou Miller/Debbie Ocean
Series: unlikely [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1961611
Comments: 10
Kudos: 33





	and I will hold on to you

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to write soft moments.  
> this was supposed to be one of those 5+1 things but it's just a 6 things I guess.  
> also, this is probably the last time I'm writing this verse - I feel like I've written everything I wanted about them, so I hope this feels like a good enough closure for you
> 
> I hope you enjoy it. xx

**i. polaroid**

"Look what I've found," Lou said coming out of the house, her bare feet tapping the wooden of the pier.

Debbie looked over her shoulder.

Lou was holding an old instant camera in her hands. She was wearing a pink fluffy sweater that didn't belong to neither of them with the same jeans she arrived in last night. Certainly she had fun going through the old dusty attic of the house.

The lake house belonged to someone owning Danny a favor. It was a new money property sitting nowhere Connecticut, surrounded by trees, too far away from everything that mattered. On the other side of the lake, there were only more trees and a couple of other lake houses, too distant to be a neighbor but close enough to notice they were empty. The perfect place to lay low.

It was still too cold for them to enjoy the lake, spring was still a distant promise. Not that Debbie had any interest in diving in the disgusting lake water but Toni - going through an overly curious phase - could use the distraction. So Debbie sat by the edge of the pier, kid nesting on the hollow between her crossed legs and resting against her chest, both of them silently looking out at the horizon.

It had been a hard beginning for them, but with time, Debbie was more than fond of Toni. She was the only human being in the world who didn't expect much from her, she was glad with any cuddles and sliced fruit she could get. They could spend hours coexisting in silence, each one in a corner of the living room, minding their own business, until Lou - their beloved link - would come home; or sometimes they even went to the park on their own. They had conversations in German Debbie had started speaking in the language to her sometime after she started to associate the world with sounds and it was fun to follow up with her learning. The cartoons that distracted Toni on the TV weren't half as bad, so sometimes Debbie joined her. Their bond, even if accidental, was stronger than any Debbie could picture herself having with a child.

Even if toddlerhood brought Toni the ability of speak and the freedom of walking, amidst her exploration of the world and herself, she was still a calm, observer spirit. Said that, in that cold morning, the refreshing view of the dark surface of the lake was enough to trap Toni's attention: her little eyes ran from the top of the trees to the birds setting off for the day, to the floating falling leaves on the lake, to the grey skies.

In moments like those, Debbie was almost certain keeping her wasn't the worst idea she ever had - a couple of jobs and a high school boyfriend came first.

Lou took the spot by their side, fidgeting with the camera. She pointed it at the horizon and clicked the button. A Polaroid was printed and she gasped in surprise.

"Didn't think it would work," she said, shaking her fresh picture.

Toni's attention perked up at it, silently watching the process, curious brown eyes glued on every single movement.

It was around that time Toni's similarities with Debbie became evident, every single day a different trace of her constructing personality appeared, making Debbie wonder if she was copying behavior or if their distant blood relations had anything to do with it. Either way, it was amusing: one day was the way she held the fork, other day Lou would point out that they were napping in the same position, and so it goes. The curious brown eyes was just the most obvious of those Easter Eggs they were slowly collecting.

Lou pointed the camera at them and clicked the button, the blinding light of the flash making woman and kid squint their eyes.

"Jeez, Lou," Debbie said, one hand instinctively covering Toni's eyes.

"Sorry," Lou said, looking at the picture after shaking it. "This one sucks, too much light. I must've turned it on by accident. How did I do it?" She examined the camera.

Debbie curved over the kid, slightly pushing her chin up to look into her eyes. "Lou is an awful paparazzi. Bist du blind?"

"Nein," Toni said, blinking her eyes one more time.

"Gut." Debbie let go of her chin, both of them staring back at the lake again.

But to prove her words wrong, Lou had turned off the flash and snapped a picture of the moment: Debbie and Toni as caught up in their small German conversation, eyes locked, in a world of their own - beautiful in all the ways things were never for them.

Debbie didn't even noticed, assuming with the shutter that Lou was just taking another picture of the lake.

Lou stared at the picture while Debbie and Toni kept their gaze on the lake, in that shared silence of them.

"Toni, baby, look here," Lou called out, putting the picture aside with the other under her thigh, so they wouldn't be carried away by the wind. "Say cheese."

"Cheesecake," Toni said with that unruly smile of hers.

Debbie snorted a laugh.

"That did that job, I think," Lou said after taking the picture, showing it to them.

Toni looked the cutest in her baby blue sweater and bowl hair cut - one of those pictures that are dearly kept.

"Let's take one together," Lou suggested, scooting even closer to them.

"No, we're fine," Debbie said.

"I'm doing it anyway."

"Can't a woman and her domestic toddler watch the ugliest lake in the East Coast in peace?"

"Come on, smile," Lou said, leaning in and nuzzling Deebie's cheek with her nose. "Smile, Toni."

"You're so annoying." Debbie half smiled and held Toni closer to her on her lap.

Lou extended one arm, turning the camera to them and with the other, kissed her cheek, making her smile and took the picture in that moment.

"Happy now?" Debbie asked.

"Actually, I am," Lou said, staring down at the picture.

Lou's dorky grin, Toni's childish beam, with her nose all scrunched, and Debbie's rare smile: it was a perfect shot - even if a little shaky.

"You have the most beautiful smile," Lou said, almost as a confession, staring down at the picture.

"She smiles when you kiss her," Toni said, getting up and wrapping her small arms around Debbies neck.

"Oh, yeah?" Lou asked, amused.

Toni nodded and took her turn kissing Debbie's cheek.

And like it was magic, Debbie smiled again - with a roll of eyes, but a smile, still.

"Okay, enough you two," Debbie said, holding the kid in place still between her legs, making sure she wouldn't lose her balance and fall in the lake behind her, and patting her back slightly. "Now I can only smile next year."

But Toni kept kissing her cheek again and again and Lou laughed and she reluctantly broke her own rule over and over again.

* * *

**ii. cast**

Toni received them at home with a Sharpie in her hand.

"Give her a time to breath, will you?" Debbie said, pocketing the Sharpie and taking Toni out of Lou’s way.

Lou had a white, simple cast. She thought about making it blue to Toni's amusement but a white one was much easier to disguise.

"Is it bad?" Tammy asked, getting up from the sofa, looking terrible.

Her disheveled hair told them tiredness took over and she had been asleep in their couch. She rubbed her eyes with heel of her hands, as she ran to examine Lou's state.

Toni, one the other hand, looked more awake than ever, even if was past three a.m, jumping in her cat stamped pajamas, crowding them with her curiosity.

"I've had worse," Lou said. "Did she wear you out?" She ruffled Toni's hair as the kid completely ignored Debbie's order and was clinging onto her, hugging her waist like a koala.

"You all wore me out," Tammy said and sighed. "Are we out of the woods?"

"Barely," Debbie said, going to the kitchen. "We're laying low for a couple of weeks, you should to the same."

"Are you leaving the city?" Tammy asked.

"Not for now." Lou sat by the sofa, Toni coming to snuggle in her lap. "Take Toni's bed, Tam-Tam, get some rest. We'll figure the rest out in the morning."

So that's what they did. Debbie and Toni both found their own excuses to sleep in Lou's bed, laying by one side each and pretending to be casual about it.

In the morning, Lou had fresh muffins, coffee and painkillers on a tray by her bedside table. Debbie silently came to nurse her own coffee sitting by her side on the bed and Toni - glad that school didn't even cross their minds that morning - took a spot by the floor with her crayons and her usual concentration frown behind her glasses. "Oh, you drew me a picture, that's-" Lou grinned and the kid came to her with her finished work.

Toni was a kid of many, many talents, but art was not one of them. Her toddlerhood drawings followed her into childhood and didn't show any signs of improvement.

"That's beautiful, baby," Lou told her, opening her arms for Toni to climb into bed with them.

Three stick figures were standing on a beach with a house behind them - or was it an elephant? It was hard to tell, really.

"Why are you taller than I am in it?" Debbie asked Toni, peering over Lou's shoulder to look at the picture.

"You're not wearing your heels," the kid explained.

"Sure." Debbie put the drawing aside, as if it was a logical explanation.

Toni snuggled against Lou's chest, biting on her muffin and pulling out the Sharpie out of her pajama top's pocket.

Debbie only snorted a laugh at the kid's persistence, not even surprised that Toni got it back from her. Being tiny had its perks in pickpocketing.

"You're giving my cast a sign, love? What are you signing?" Lou asked, in that melted voice that belonged to Toni only.

"My name," Toni said. She scrabbled in her name in her loopy handwriting on the white cast, near the hole for Lou's thumb. "And a sun. Because your hair is yellow and you make me happy." She did as she told, and a scrappy sun appeared under her name.

Lou laughed and kissed her temple. "I love it. Thank you."

"Now's Deb's turn." Toni extended the Sharpie to Debbie.

She took the Sharpie and exchanged a look with Lou who was looking at her with that insufferable delicious smirk of her. She wanted nothing but kiss it out of her face.

Last night was a scare. Lou fell from a roof on their wait out of a jewelry store, dropping a couple of rings and herself on the hard dirty floor of the back alley. Tammy and Debbie managed to get her up and run to the vehicle, disappearing into the night. Lou was in pain the whole time, she knew, even if she was hiding it with a clenched jaw as they sat together in the back of the van. She send Tammy to their home, to send off the babysitter and stay with Toni while she took Lou to a reliable and discreet veterinarian in New Jersey. Lou cried when it came to be just the two of them, and it broke her heart. Lou owned parts of her that were so essential for her to live, it felt like she was living with an open chest; it was an everlasting risk to be alive.

Debbie scrabbled her name nearby Toni's. She looked up to find Lou watching her movements. For a good measure, she added a small heart beside her name.

A heart, because you have mine, she would say if she was the kind of people who said cheesy things like that.

Debbie didn't have to say thing aloud, Lou knew. She knew.

Lou smiled and leaned in to kiss her and kiss her and kiss her.

"Is that a heart?" Toni asked, eyeing the cast, totally ignoring their moment. "It's ugly."

Lou laughed against the top of her head as Debbie scoffed and argued back, in defense of her ugly drawing.

Apparently, the only kind of art Oceans could do was con. And that's was fine by Lou.

* * *

**iii. curveball**

Oceans loved baseball. Going to see the Mets a few Sundays during the season was one of the few normal parent-child bonding child Frank offered his kids. At first, Debbie liked the hot dogs more than the game itself, but it didn't take long for her to grow fond of the game as well.

"Am I late?" Lou asked, sitting by her side on the bleachers.

"Don't worry, she hasn't done a thing yet," Debbie said, attention divided between a hot dog and the softball game. "And is probably not going to. But she is next to bat."

Lou looked around the bleachers. Parents were everywhere, with their team caps and coolers. Those were people around their age who made different choices in life, that picked a path that they avoided at all costs, people they laughed at and stole from; and still, they were sharing space in that warm Saturday morning. Life was a joke. They stood out from those people, with their clothes and their seclusion - at least Debbie was wearing a cap from Toni's team, that she probably didn't pay for.

On the field, an athletic, tall girl, with long legs was batting for the other team. She managed to bat two good balls and her team cherished her as she got back to the bench.

"I never get what's going on in there," Lou said as she attempted to keep up with the game, sounding more Australian than ever.

"I don't think Toni does either," Debbie said, eyes squinting behind her sunglasses.

"She can't be that bad," Lou defended the kid.

"She is doing better than the last game. We were at Danny's last weekend, we taught her a thing or two. But, honey, you are underestimating how bad she was." Debbie bit on her hot dog.

It was Toni's turn at bat. She walked to the home base, all white uniform with purple stripes, socks and helmet, carrying her bat in tow. She took a deep breath and shook her shoulders before taking the position, adjusting her glasses and briefly looking up to bleachers.

"And here goes nothing," Debbie said, as they waved to her.

"Go, Toni," Lou yelled and Debbie gave her a look. "I changed her diapers, this is my job," she said, without looking at the other woman.

The pitcher and the girl on the first base exchanged a glance. It wasn't news to the league that Toni was a weak ball player, they knew this was going to be an easy one.

The girl pitched a fastball and soon the ball was resting inside the catcher's glove. Toni's swing sent her losing her balance and falling on her bottom.

It was terrible to watch even for Lou who couldn't care less for softball or baseball - or whatever.

"Did you play it as a kid?" She asked, knowing Ocean's history with the game.

"Briefly," Debbie said biting the inside of her cheek, eyes not leaving the field. "I gave it up for more...interesting extracurricular activities."

"I'm not going to ask what that was," Lou snorted.

"I was the first treasurer of the student council to blackmail the principal." Her voice was proud tone. "Those were some fun times."

While that conversation went on, a second fastball happened and once again, Toni failed - at least after that one she managed to keep her balance.

"Shit," Debbie said, dropping her hot dog behind her with a sigh and walking to the chain link fence. "Toni, come here," she yelled.

The kid looked confused for about two seconds, before running to Debbie, ignoring the coach's protest. Parents were advised against meddling with the game - luckily breaking rules was kind of their thing.

"Eyes on the fucking ball, you hear me?" She said when Toni arrived at the other side of the wire.

"I am but-" Toni started.

"Do you see them?" She pointed at the defense team, to that ginger pitcher and her annoying freckles. "They are laughing at you, they think you're a nerd in glasses, just like June Wallace did. You and I both know you’re way more than that." She paused. "You couldn't punch June Wallace but you can hit that fucking ball, are you listening? We practiced it with Danny, you can do it. Will you do it?"

The kid pushed her glasses up her nose and nodded, looking determined. She looked up at Lou for support.

"Go, kid, give them everything," Lou said, uncertain, still sitting by the bench.

"Alright," Toni said, her voice more confident than her posture.

"You shouldn't be allowed nowhere near sports, Deborah Ocean," Lou said, almost laughing, when Toni got back to home base. "Or children."

"And still I am legally responsible for one, Louise." Debbie sat back down on the bleachers. "There she goes," she says as the pitcher prepares her pose on her feet. "God, her team is going to hate her so much after she loses this one, maybe we should move her to another minor league. Children are terrible and Toni makes no effort to fit in, it's so- Oh."

Toni had batted the curveball pitched at her. Away. Out of the field. Send it flying over New York City. Her team on the bench got up, looking shocked, and so did the oppose team, and the parents on the bleachers - and Debbie.

Lou looked between the field and Debbie, getting up as well. "Did she do it wrong? What is happening?"

"A home run, your kid got a fucking home run," Debbie said with a short unbelievable laugh as the parents started clapping and she joined.

One of the dads patted Debbie's back and she didn't even mind.

The kid victoriously ran from the home base, to first base, to second base, to third base and back to home base, where her team crowded over her. Toni herself looked like something impossible had just happened - and maybe it did.

"Did they win?" Lou asked, understanding that this was a good thing, but not knowing anything else about the game.

"No, they wasted their whole credit in miracles on that. Especially because it came from Toni." Debbie sat back down, finding the scattered hot dog and throwing it in the trash a few feet away. "This hot dog was the worst thing I've ever ate."

After the game, Toni had a beam on her face, even if her team lost. She ran to them carrying her things and they started to walk away from the arena.

"I don't want to play it anymore," Toni said putting her purple cap backwards as Lou took her bag.

Debbie, used to how these days Toni couldn't make her mind up about anything, nodded. "And what is next?" She asked, because of course there was a next thing.

"I think I'll try soccer," Toni stated.

"Finally a sport I understand," Lou cried out. "You're too young for treasury anyway."

Toni scrunched her nose up. "Why treasury?"

"Never mind, kid." Debbie smirked, exchanging an amused look with Lou. "Never mind."

* * *

**iv. thunder**

When Lou arrived from the club that night and entered her bedroom Debbie was already on her bed, all bundled up under her covers, on the side Lou never sleeps.

She doesn't ask, she doesn't wake her up, she doesn't tell her to leave. She just silently walked to her bathroom and started to get ready to sleep.

It's not like they didn't share beds before without the purpose of sex, so there was nothing to discuss. Or maybe there was, because Debbie had spent the last six years sleeping in a bunk bed and even before that it had been a while since they slept next to each other. Also, they happened to have some kind of a fight on the beach earlier that day.

But no, she decided, nothing to discuss - not that night.

"You're here before the rain," Debbie said, from under the covers, when Lou got back to the room, just in her plaid robe roaming through her chest of drawers.

She didn't know Debbie was awake. Now it wasn't just up to her if there was something to discuss. But knowing Debbie and her reluctance to deal with anything that involved emotional effort, she knew they were safe for the night.

"I don't think it's going to rain," she said, picking up a set of pajamas and going back into the bathroom.

"It is," Debbie said louder, so Lou could hear her through the semi open door of the bathroom.

"You can feel it in your knees or something?" Lou mocked.

"The weather app says so."

Lou laughed, her mouth full of toothpaste.

She goes through her night routine, removing her make up and taking a hot shower, putting on the pajamas before going back into the room and taking her place on the bed, a safe distance and a safe silence between them.

Debbie's app was right and soon it started raining, hitting on Lou's wide warehouse windows, lightening illuminating the bedroom, the curtains only half closed.

The sound of the front door opening perked up Lou's attention, followed by the sound of steps on the stairs. In a usual night, she would get up and take a look at what was happening, but since the planning began, there were seven people around the loft all the time. So she stayed there, laying in silence, sharing with Debbie, wondering if she was the only one still awake.

There was a knock on the semi open door and a head poked in. "Mom?"

Lou sat up, suddenly alert and Debbie followed suit. "Toni? What are you doing here?"

Toni was supposed to be in school, fighting the world, playing Robin Hood, writing her essays and skipping class because she believed herself to be smarter than her professors.

"I took the last train here with some folks from uni." She walked into the room, water dripping from her coat, fringe falling wet on her face. "We went to this music festival on Queens - awful, just terrible - then I came in to check on my adults," Toni said, walking through the bedroom while drying off her glasses with her top before putting them back. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Are you drunk?" Debbie asked back, eyeing her.

"Of course not, underage drinking is against the law," Toni said, opening the curtains a little bit and resting her palms against the window, the water running outside making shadows on her face.

Lou didn't know what to make out of that. Knowing Toni, she might as well be telling the truth. "Take off that coat, you're dripping water everywhere," she said.

Toni went to the bathroom, coming back into the room without the coat, her jeans and stripped blouse shockingly dry underneath.

A loud thunder reverberated between the sound of rain and the girl jumped in her skin. "Shit." She rested her back against the wall next the bathroom door. "Thunders, ugh," she said.

It was adorable to Lou that it didn't matter if Toni was now a Yale girl, running away from school to attend concerts and walking around New York in the rain, she still hated thunders as much as she did as a little girl.

Toni walked to the bed, kicking off her Nikes and socks, climbing onto it and settling down between them.

"What are you doing?" Debbie asked after hissing with the pain of Toni's knee hitting her thigh.

"There's an Asian girl in my bed- no, that sounds so wrong," Toni said and frowned under the dim light. "There's this girl who happens to be Asian sleeping in my bed and I don't know her." She sat, back resting against the headboard. "Should we be worried?"

"That's Constance, she is in the plan," Debbie said. "Just kick her out of there."

"You kick her out, you brought her here," Toni said.

"Actually, Lou recruited her."

"I'm not kicking her out," Lou said. "There's a thunderstorm out there. I didn't even know she was around."

"She is always around," Debbie mumbled. "Go sleep on the couch," she told Toni.

"Are you kidding? It's freezing downstairs." She tucked her legs under the covers.

Debbie sighed. "Go sleep in my bed."

"Go you to your bed, Deborah," Toni replied. "That bedroom sucks, the wind makes weird noises there."

Lou was curious about Debbie insisting on staying in that bed, but she was so tired, so defeated, she just wanted her to stay, really. And Toni too.

"There's enough space," Lou reasoned, laying back down. "Your feet are freezing, Toni, stop it."

Toni laughed, retrieving her feet from touching Lou's. She laid down and turned to hug her, giving her a big kiss on the cheek then laying on her back again.

The thing about Toni was that she was not what she looked like. Not always, at least. Was she a Yale snob in glasses? Yes, most of the time but, beyond that, she was also the sweetest thing Lou knew - even if very few people knew that side of her. Toni was hugs and kisses and caring too much about everything. Toni was still watching cartoons in her pajamas. Toni was feeling enough sorry for cockroaches to pick them up in her hands and put them outside the house instead of killing like a normal person would (maybe that's what you get for raising a city child).

"I was walking down the street- well, running down the street because of the rain and it occurred to me. Are you nervous?" Toni asked Debbie, laying on her side and supporting her head on her elbow to look down at Debbie. "About the- you know."

Debbie grumbled, noticing the attention on her. "This is not a sleepover. Lou, make her shut up, I used to have more peace in prison." She turned her back to both of them.

Lou didn't want her to shut up. She wanted the answer. Was Debbie nervous? Did she have any idea of the risk she was putting them? All of them, the gang, and the three people in the bed? Especially since she deliberately decided to get revenge amidst an already insanely risk job? So she didn't shut Toni up, even if she herself wanted to sleep. "Are you nervous?"

Debbie sighed. "I'm going to my bed."

"Nooo," Toni whined, putting her arms around Debbie and forcing her back down, giving her a kiss on the cheek for good measure. "I'm sorry, I promise I'll shut up. I'll just lay down and sleep peacefully."

Another thunder resonated and Toni cursed again, her hand gripping tight onto Debbie's sleeve briefly.

Lou noticed how Debbie's hand covered Toni's own and caressed her knuckles with her thumb until the sound was gone and Toni sighed with relief as they could hear just the rain against the window again.

The scene soothed her more than it should, really. This was all so useless. All this anger, all this resentment, all these unspoken words. Everyone she loved was at arms reach, they would make it work - they had to. She had to trust Debbie, one more time, and she was going to because what else had she been doing for the last thirty years?

"Goodnight you," Debbie said, handing Toni one of the pillows she had under her head, as a peace offer.

"Goodnight you," Toni and Lou answered in unison.

Toni removed her glasses, reaching over Debbie to put them on the bedside table and it seemed that they would finally get some sleep.

Debbie threw an arm over her eyes. "I don't get nervous, I have everything it takes for this to work out," she said after a while, her voice reassuring instead of her usual irritating aloofness.

"You do," Lou said after a beat, their quarrel on the beach at last fully behind them. She laid on her side, threw an arm over Toni and reached for Debbie's hand, not containing her smile when the woman intertwined their finger.

A third thunder hit the skies and Toni pulled the covers over her head, unaware of the moment that just occurred around her. "Argh, I hate thunders so much."

* * *

**v. puppy**

Amita was the first one to arrive, a bottle of French wine in tow and a whole newfound grace all over her.

"You got a puppy? Amita asked, picking up Daisy and cooing at how small she was. "Two criminals and a puppy, awn."

"It's Toni's," Debbie said, pouring and handing her a glass of wine.

"Initially it was. She is Debbie's dog now," Lou said from the kitchen, taking the lasagna off the oven, making the whole place smell like home.

Debbie scoffed. "She is not my dog," she put the bottle of wine on the coffee table and walked away to the stairs. "I'll get Toni out of her bath."

"She follows Debbie everywhere, look," Lou said as the dog wriggled herself out of Amita's hands to follow her. "Debbie's dog, I told you."

The pug followed Debbie all the way up the stairs and they disappeared together into Toni's bedroom.

"How is Toni?" Amita asked, nursing her wine and sitting by one of the bar stools in the kitchen area, closer to Lou. "I almost flew back as soon as I heard, but Tammy stopped me to not raise any unnecessary red flags."

"Tammy did right," Lou said, as she went around the kitchen, figuring out the rest of the dinner for nine they were hosting. "Toni is fine. The leg and the arm are still healing but she is good. Whiny, but good."

"I feel so guilty that she paid for it," Amita said, looking sincerely disturbed.

"Amita, she is fine, really," Lou said, softly. "This life we lead is- it is like that sometimes."

Tammy arrived soon after, with a homemade dish of her own, followed soon after by Constance and Nine bringing Italian take out. Rose and Daphne arrived fashionably late together, either on purpose, either because Rose could design dresses and suits and jumpsuits filled with handmaiden details but tracking time was not one of her strong suits.

It was the first time they were all together after the heist - and the complications of it - so it was meaningful in some way.

"No, that's- please don't let me fall," they heard Toni say from the mezzanine.

Lou looked up and smirked. "Every single time."

"I'm not letting you fall, I'm holding you," Debbie said back.

"Okay," Toni said, not sounding okay at all. "Tell your dog to go ahead so we don't trip over her."

"Not my d- Daisy, downstairs now," Debbie said.

They heard small paws against the stairs and soon the small dog appeared.

Everyone crowded over Toni as soon as she appeared downstairs, her arm in a sling and Debbie helping her move into the couch because her leg was still in a cast.

Tammy and Amita knew Toni from way back, practically watched her growing up. Rose, Constance and Nine met her when she showed up sporadically home during their preparation for the heist. Only Daphne haven't met her yet, but was eager to see "baby Ocean" with her own eyes, even if told that the baby was almost twentysomething.

"So you're the famous Toni. I kept hearing about you but now I can finally put a name to the face. Imagine how shocked I was to find out about you! I mean, I knew they were gay and married but not that much! That's adorable," Daphne said, sitting beside the girl as they all sprawled around the living room and started dining.

Toni laughed and turned her head to look at Lou. "I love her."

"The eyes make so much sense," she said, looking between Debbie and Toni. She got closer and examined the brown eyes. "It's literally the same color. I'm amazed. Are you one of those designer babies?"

Toni laughed harder. "I'm in love with you."

The gang took the task of explaining the situation for the newcomer, briefly, as they dined.

"That's sounds exactly like a Diane Keaton movie," Daphne said, touched. "That's so- so meant to be." She looked down at her plate, hand on her chest, dramatically taking in the moment.

Debbie exchanged a look with Lou, sitting on the floor, between her armchair and the coffee table.

Lou was sitting cross-legged, shoeless, only in her usual skinny jeans and a shirt with too many buttons popped open. She was looking up at her with a heartfelt smile, ignoring the talking and fussing around them, focusing just on her: it was falling in love all over again.

So Debbie leaned down, following suit and ignoring the world around them for a moment, their friends, their annoying kid complaining about the dog licking her deserve spoon, the record that was playing and nobody was really listening to, and kissed her, cradling her face in her hands, holding her in place as if to never let go. Because yeah, it was all meant to be, in some way.

* * *

**vi. band-aid**

By Sunday morning, Debbie found Toni sitting on the kitchen floor, back and head against the fridge, legs spread in front of her, coat still on. Her glasses were on the floor beside her and she was sleeping.

Daisy was laying by her side, her ugly scrunched face on Toni's lap, as if that spot was enough comfortable for her to give up her usual spot by Debbie's feet on their bed.

It would be an already unusual sight, but the pinkish color of the skin around Toni's eyes made it even more puzzling. No, not just puzzling, worried. She was getting in her flight or attack mood. What the fuck happened last night?

Debbie kicked the thigh unoccupied by Daisy lightly with her barefoot.

The girl grumbled and turned, making her lose her balance and slip from her sitting position onto the floor, waking up Daisy.

"What are you doing?" Debbie asked.

"Sleeping," Toni said, cheek against the hardwood floor.

"What happened to your eyes?" Debbie leaned down to take a better look.

"Pepper spray," she mumbled.

"How?" Debbie felt her heart beat faster; something had gone wrong. She looked around the loft, wondering if Toni left a trail.

"That's a funny story. I was running to get a cab and the alley was really dark. I stumbled upon a lady, she thought I was going to attack her," Toni said, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands. She laughed. "Can't blame her."

Debbie sighed. Okay, maybe things were alright. It was just a funny story, nothing related to the-

Daisy approached Toni's face and was about to start licking it when Debbie shooed her away. She didn't need two useless whiny beings suffering because of pepper.

"You came back home like this? Are we safe?"

"We are, don't worry. And I'm surprised too. It's good to hear your voice, Deb, I had no idea if I had found the right house until now." Her eyes were squinted closed strongly and she pinched the bridge of her nose. "It still burns a little bit."

Debbie went to the downstairs bathroom to get a washcloth. She ducked in under the faucet and brought it back to the kitchen, sitting down beside Toni and swabbing it over her eyes as she laid on the hardwood floor, sleepy and in pain - bringing to Debbie unpleasant flashbacks from last year. There was a small cut above her right eyebrow, that bled as the towel made contact with it.

"There's a cut-"

"I hit my head on the counter over there." She pointed her finger on the direction opposed from where the counter actually was.

It was a wise choice by Toni not to attempt to climb up the stairs like that in the middle of the night or she would probably have a broken bone by now. They were done with Toni breaking body parts.

"I can't believe you fell asleep like this," Debbie said in a low voice. "You should've called for us." She made sure to use different sides of the washcloth as she cleaned the remains of pepper spray out of Toni's eyes not to make them or the cut worse.

"Mama, I'm a big girl now," Toni said with a smile, finally opening her eyes. Her eyelids were still swollen and the inside of her eyes was red as well but at least Debbie knew she hadn't gone blind.

Toni never called her that - all the mom terms were Lou's only - and Debbie didn't care about it, really, it would be ridiculous if Toni decided to start calling her by that now. Maybe it was the specificity of the moment, or the way she said it, half as a joke, half sleepy and vulnerable, but it made a warmness spread inside her nevertheless. 

"Don't I know that," Debbie said, cupping her chin briefly before getting up and extending a hand to help the girl up as well. "I'm taking you to your bedroom to have some real sleep."

"But I gotta tell you about the-"

"We'll have the entire day," Debbie said, handing her glasses and guiding her up the stairs.

She helped her change from the long party dress she was wearing into pajamas. She found - for some reason - a Hello Kitty Band-Aid box on Toni's bathroom cabinet and placed it on the cut on her forehead, before tucking her in bed and closing the curtains.

"Goodnight you," she said when she was sure Toni was comfortable enough to not attempt to leave bed.

The kid didn't even manage to respond.

It was half past ten when Lou appeared in the terrace, wrapped in the plaid robe she refused to get rid of, carrying in her arms Daisy, that certainly had found her way back to their bed.

Debbie was quietly going through her iPad while having breakfast on the table they put there a few weeks ago.

The whole breakfast in the terrace was a good idea, the climate was still warm enough for that and there was some sense of reward to be able to do so. Therefore, since then, that is what they did almost every single day, just because they could.

"Did you hear some noise in the middle of the night?" Lou asked, releasing the dog onto the floor.

Daisy ran straight into the bed of flowers both of them pretended to not care for but watered every day and shooed the dog away every time she attempted to eat it.

"I didn't. But it was your kid," Debbie said with a smirk, as Lou leaned down to kiss her lips before taking the chair opposed to her.

"But last night wasn't the-" Lou was frowning.

"It was." Debbie poured coffee on Lou's mug, that was there waiting just for her to show up, and pushed it back to her.

"What was she doing here in the middle of the night? Is she okay?" Lou asked, about to get up and go to the girl.

"She is one piece," Debbie said, laying a hand over Lou's stopping her from going anywhere. "She is sleeping, don't worry, I handled it." She sipped her own coffee. "And there's nothing but good news about it on today's news."

Toni appeared half an hour later, still in her pajamas, her short her trapped in an impossibly tiny messy bun. She sat in the other chair, between them, and started eating.

"What is this?" Toni asked, chewing on a cookie she took from Lou’s plate.

"A cookie," Lou said.

"No, you tricked me, this is not a cookie."

"It's an oatmeal cookie," Lou said.

"No, this is that thing on the floor of hamster cages," Toni said, taking one more bite.

"After the hamster pooped in it," Debbie complemented, having made the same mistake before.

"And still you're eating it.” Lou took the last sip of her coffee.

"To make sure I’m never tricked again," Toni answered still chewing on the cookie.

They let her eat, making small talk over their plans for the day, wondering about in which museum around the world were certain paintings and making assumptions about until how long in the year their flowers would hold up well.

"So, how was it?" Debbie asked, finally.

Toni chewed on the rest of her cookie, trying to hide a smirk.

"Smooth. Almost two million," Toni said with a smile, elbows on the table, chin on her hands. "With the job only."

"Job only?" Lou asked, leaning back on her chair, attention fully on the kid.

Toni chuckled. "There was the poker table."

"Poker table?" Debbie asked, not containing her amusement.

The girl shrugged and leaned back on her chair. "I needed a reason to get fired." She took off her glasses and cleaned them with the edge of her pajamas.

Toni's first solo job was classical Robin Hood raised in Brooklyn by morally grey people. It was brilliant, quiet and insurgent - entirely Toni.

Her plan started last summer, when she got a summer job as an assistant for a New York NGO that dealt with public health issues based on the Upper West Side. She got at their office with her Yale education in progress, a clean outfit just edgy enough to show personality but formal enough to show the interviewer she had to be taken seriously and charmed her way into the job. Within a month, she had showed them the highly efficient worker she could be, gathering large donations and finding just the right sponsors. It didn’t take long for her to become the director’s favorite paw.

So, almost an year later, when their usual high-end catering company suddenly had a hitch with a delivery, delaying the arrival of the alcohol beverage at a fundraiser for free flu shots for Puerto Rico - even if that never happened before in all their years working together - they decided to end the partnership. Finding a new company before the big next event, a fundraiser to gather donations to eradicate malaria around the world, Toni's suggestion of for a new provider based on the West Village was heard.

Le Pomme Organic Solutions took some help to come together. Nine forged some documents to make it look like a thirty-year-old family run company; Debbie gave the credit line to make it exist, Tammy made sure the place was operable; Lou posed as the owner with a fake name and found the contacts she needed to make the plan work; and Daphne casually allowed a box with the logo appear on the background of one of her Instagram Stories. Le Pomme was going to offer the NOG catering with the same brands and quality they got from their old provider, by the same price as well - even if those prices were only available because of their years of shared history. It was a no brainer for the NOG.

Except, the contacts Lou arranged were very specific ones. One of them provided replicas of bottles of elite champagne and wine. Other, provided real full bottles of drinks, not from the same expensive brands, but lower cost ones. On Le Pomme, those two things came together, and cheap champagne was now presented in the bottle of Ruinart, same thing happening for the food. It was like magic.

When came the day of the fundraising, the job itself was done. The money paid by the attenders was, as they always are in those events, way higher than they should. So, as Le Pomme received the large portion for overpriced foods and drinks, offering the same menu with ingredients of lower quality and brands disguised as the usual expensive items, a portion larger than just the usual earnings was left behind in Le Pomme. Minus the credit line returned to Debbie – that Toni insisted on paying back - and the wages for the employers used to the event, the money went straight to the fund for the cause, increasing the amount and expanding the good the money would make.

"Did people notice the difference?" Lou asked.

"Maybe they did. But no one pays ten thousand dollars for a fundraiser and goes out saying the food sucked. After all, they're attending for an altruist cause, aren't they?" Toni put her glasses back on her face.

"And the poker table?" Debbie insisted, curious about that unknown to them part of the story.

Toni rolled her eyes and grinned. "Some WASPs put together an amicable poker table after dinner. I got in, played equally amicably.” She sipped her coffee. “Then came the money and...well, I did my magic."

By magic, Toni meant she counted the cards, as she had been doing since she was five.

Debbie laughed and looked the other way. "So you got fired for beating rich men on poker?"

"Nobody likes to lose," Toni said and shrugged.

"How much from the table?" Lou asked, eyeing her with a proud gaze from behind her bangs..

"Twelve."

Debbie and Lou exchanged a proud glance. Their kid was all grown up.

"And how does it feel?" Debbie had been meaning to ask her that since she first showed up home with the plan designed on the back of the notes of a Microeconomics class.

The girl paused, two fingers coming to run against the Band-Aid on her forehead, deep in thought. "It feels like-" She looked up, almost midday sun hitting her brown hair and glasses. "Like I want to do it more." She looked at them and smirked.

Debbie patted her hand over the table, affectionately, a small smile in her lips. "Well done, Ocean."

**Author's Note:**

> comments are much appreciated since this feels like goodbye.  
> thank you for making me company through these tales. xx


End file.
